Yves Caumon's study of a woman's disintegrating life unspools calmly and gently
French film-maker Yves Caumon has co-written and directed a delicate, sad study of loneliness. It stars Sandrine Kiberlain as Anne, who works in a food preparation facility in Bordeaux, something less grand than a restaurant kitchen, apparently supplying meals in bulk to office cafeterias. Kiberlain, with her distinctive intelligence, angular elegance and willowy height, confers on Anne a haughty and unhappy reserve. She is on her own; her ex-partner has started a new family with someone else, and tragedy lies behind their split. Raphael (Clément Sibony) is a handsome, conceited chef who is hitting on her at work, but Anne's sole romantic spark comes at the cinema, finding a connection with a total stranger in the next row, Claude (Serge Riaboukine), who like her is crying at Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu. But what disturbs Anne most is the fact that a pigeon has mysteriously come to live with her in her apartment, making a racket, flying around, perching on her shoulder. Caumon cleverly suggests an ambiguity: is the bird a symbol of life and hope – or its opposite, merely the disquieting sign of verminous decay and deterioriation, as Anne's life gradually becomes a ruin? Caumon allows the film to unspool calmly, gently and unexpectedly hopefully to its conclusion.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/aug/16/the-bird-oiseau-review
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